House Beautiful: What makes a place homey is finishing

In the den, a colourful carpet and futon cover complement the carved masks on the wall.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

Even on a dreary winter day, the dining room has a warm, cheerful ambience. The window seat offers a great spot from which to enjoy the view and provides storage for the deck-furniture cushions.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

Big picture windows in the living room are visible from the foyer. The back of the massive chimney is painted a warm red. Next to a lotus lamp from Vietnam, colourful cushions on the window seat complement the earthtoned bedcover in the master bedroom. The seat flips up to provide extra storage.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

William Morris tiles are a focal point behind the cooktop. The large island's prep area allows anyone working in the kitchen to look out the windows to the ocean views.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

The kitchen countertops are granite and floors throughout the house are mostly Jatoba, a Brazilian cherry. The cabinets are maple with a hard cherry finish, for easy wipedowns.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

The chimney seen from the living room side. Skylights as well as large windows bring light into the house.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

The chimney seen from the living room side. Skylights as well as large windows bring light into the house.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

The master bathroom is equipped with a shower and a soaker tub. It also includes a skylight, one of many used throughout the house.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

On a dreary winter day, the living room has a warm, cheerful ambience.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

On a dreary winter day, the living room has a warm, cheerful ambience.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

On a grey grey, the clouds meet the water, obscuring the view of Satellite Channel and Saltspring Island.Frances Litman
/ Victoria Times Colonist

Bigger has never meant better to this high-energy couple, and that was especially true when it came to designing their retirement home on Cloake Hill, in North Saanich.

"We didn't want a starter castle," joked David, even though many nearby homes are much larger.

He and Jennifer, who asked to keep their last name private, retired here from Hong Kong five years ago and had no interest in a mini-mansion. As a result, their 2,700-square-foot home is brilliantly unpretentious and comfortable, yet spacious feeling and meticulously finished inside.

Whenever faced with a choice, they selected quality over quantity, simplicity over supersizing and, with the help of architect Brian Morris and builder Rob Parsons, they achieved it at Chygwyth - which means "Home on the hill" in old Cornish.

While not a castle, the house does have a short bridge that leads across a tiny moat to their front door, but David explains that was because of the demanding site.

"A huge effort was necessary because this lot is very steep; there is a big rock outcrop over there, a huge hollow here ." A sheer gully on the property was transformed into a long interior staircase and the rest of the site required 100 truckloads of fill "and a huge amount of concrete for footings," said David.

One of the early questions was whether the view lot could be built on at all. It was so obstructed by trees, they brought in a bulldozer several times to judge the lay of the land.

The solution was a three-metre drop from road to garage and another eight-metre descent to where the house now stands. Below that, the nearly half-hectare property plunges again, down to a wonderful garden.

"We ended up touching the earth lightly," said Jennifer, quoting an aboriginal proverb.

She envisions a Japanese garden on the property. Already they have landscaped a pond with bamboo plantings, a small pagoda and built a shady meditation pergola.

Jennifer and David have thought long and hard about design.

"A lot of homes are showcases, but rather cold and not really livable," said David. This happens, he thinks, when people focus on layout and room size. He and Jennifer believe a home's character derives from details, not volume.

"We put our money into the interiors and wanted to build better, not bigger. What makes a place homey is the finishing, not footage," David said.

Their interiors feature beautifully crafted mouldings around windows and doors, beamed ceilings, finely tailored built-ins and window seats. They credit brothers Joe and Tom McLean, of Heritage Hardwood Floors and Northwest Window and Door, respectively, for their commitment to detail.

The owners' commitment began in 2002 when they bought the lot and began creating a meticulous scrapbook of ideas and pictures so they could build in 2006. It's such a gorgeous book, they could frame the pages as a record of their journey. Not only is it a visual compendium, but also a philosophical statement that touches on design elements such as focal points and the architectural concept of enfilade, often seen in Baroque palaces.

Enfilade refers to a straight, axial relationship between rooms aligned via connecting doorways, which eliminates hallways and adds a sense of sequential surprise.

David and Jennifer love surprises and illusions.

One of their favourites is the stairway with balustrades that diminish in height as you climb, while the pony wall below increases - as if built for a Lewis Carroll story. The steps, which are coated in varnish mixed with crushed walnuts for grip, widen as they descend, and the walls are off square, adding to the eccentricity. The result is not easily captured in a photo, but delights the eye. They praise their construction team for creating it.

"Stairs can be ignored or they can be elevated to something special," David said.

Another surprise awaits visitors in the entry, where a wide pillar narrows toward the ceiling and blocks the tantalizing view.

"When you come down the driveway, you know there must be a view but you don't see it immediately when you enter. It's held back until you come into the living room . like privileged information," David said with a chuckle.

More visual bonbons abound in their many eclectic pieces. For a dozen years, David was chairman of the department of sport science and physical education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Jennifer worked as a health-care educator.

Before that, the Cornwall-born David taught for 25 years at the University of Manitoba and Jennifer, who was born in Singapore and mostly raised in Australia, also travelled extensively. (The two met in the unlikely spot of Vanderhoof and always wanted to return here to live. "People in Hong Kong all know about Victoria," said David.)

Their home contains treasures they have collected from around the world: Balinese stools, masks from Thailand, Tibetan picnic vessels, Chinese chairs and a bench from Java covered with material from Chechnya, in the Caspian Mountains. Their dog sleeps on camel bags from the Middle East.

Throughout the home, there is an emphasis on natural fibres and beautiful silks. Many of their carpets were made by nomads, "which resonated for us since we've been fairly nomadic ourselves - although we have planted ourselves fairly firmly now," joked Jennifer.

Working with such thoughtful clients was a delight for their architect.

"The more information clients pass along, the better I understand what they're after," Morris said. "It's wonderful to be with people who communicate so well verbally, and through sketches and writing."

One of his signatures is the use of sunlight - and he gave them skylights everywhere: down a central hallway, beside the fireplace, in bathrooms, inside and outside the entry and over an outdoor seating area.

"I always look for opportunities for people to sit outside around the dinner hour - the western sun is quite important."

The owners had read The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka, so their home speaks to that in spades. "Excess space costs money and is a waste," said Morris, who typically builds homes in the 3,000-square-foot range. "It makes sense to put your money where you'll see and appreciate it."

He was lavish in his use of columns and beams, one of which runs down both sides of the central axis hallway, a unifying element that brings warmth into the home. Wood was also used extensively for storage, through built-in cabinetry and window seats.

"It's nice to spread storage around. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it should be in the right places." To get it right, people need to think about how they live, Morris said. Do they want to carry outdoor furniture to the basement or have a small room off the deck to store it?

In this house, windows seats provide storage in the dining room (for deck furniture cushions), in the master bedroom (for out of season clothing), in the living room (for TV and stereo speakers and the Christmas tree stand) and in the kitchen (for files).

Now nearing 70, the owners live mostly on the 1,700 square-foot main floor, even though they are both still fit. A lower level was added because it was a natural for the site, and Morris ensured all the doors and hallways are wide enough for a wheelchair, just in case.

The owners even had strong opinions about their garage, which they didn't want "to speak louder than the house." Morris positioned it off to the side of the main drive and made it into a little jewel.

"I gave it a similar roof slope, materials, massing and added interesting side doors, a covered porch, and column, like the house has.

"A garage is part of the view from a house so you might as well make it great."

LIVING LARGE IN A QUALITY SMALLER HOME

Victoria architect Brian Morris is part of the trend toward smaller homes these days.

"A big house has a big impact on the environment in terms of materials, how much you have to heat," said Morris, who specializes in single-family homes.

"I found out pretty quickly that I love to work one-on-one with the people who will be using the building, rather than a generalized public. It's more rewarding."

And while he notes a move toward more compact dwellings, he points out that the green esthetic is often paralleled by a desire for higher quality expressed in big windows, attractive columns, beams and other pleasing details.

"Most of my clients want to live in their houses for a long time, perhaps the rest of their lives, and not only do they want them to be smaller, they want them to be easier to maintain, faster to clean."

One way of achieving this is by minimizing hallways, "and not using square footage to move around the house."

He says monster homes frequently include spaces that are rarely used, formal dining rooms, for instance, or grand hallways with sweeping stairs. "I think people are discarding that, and asking: 'Why spend money on them?' "

While some clients are still intent on great rooms, he says what makes them successful is when an architect or designer also provides a much smaller, intimate space, "where they can close the doors and enjoy reading or watching television."

- Grania Litwin

MAKE DETAILS MATTER MORE THAN A HOME'S DIMENSIONS

The owners spent money inside the house rather than on excess square footage. Here are some of their guiding principles:

- Enfilade: lining up rooms, doorways and windows in sequence to create spaces that open into each other.

- Focal points: a fireplace, or illuminated piece of art to draw the eye.

- Transparency: lots of glass to take advantage of views and connect with the outdoors.

- Enticing stairways.

- Skylights: to provide pools of natural light on even the darkest days.

- Front entry: A spacious area that doesn't open immediately onto the living room, or views.

- Natural woods: to bring comfort and warmth to each room.

- Rooms: used as connectors, with small areas within them, such as window seats, where one can be separate but still part of the larger space.

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